Friday, December 26, 2008

On Wednesday, Walker spent approximately a billion hours shoveling snow while it snowed so that the Bordewick clan could park without getting stuck and Mom and Grandma could unload in the garage. Stewie here is helpfully modeling the shallow drifts near the house. When he stands in the shoveled part of the driveway, the snow reaches halfway up his body. And the rain we had for a few hours on Christmas Eve did not help, although sometime over the last few days our pond melted enough that all the snow on it is gone, although I think it froze again last night.

Eventually everyone who wasn't sick made it to our house. I always feel weird when I don't see my sister on Christmas Eve, but Christmas Day doesn't bother me as much. It's all good since we are getting together for Grandma's birthday on Sunday, so I can see her then. While my uncles washed dishes (They insist on doing it every time we get together because they were in the military and they have a system. The one time Mika and I kicked them out of the kitchen and did it ourselves, they lurked in the doorway until my Aunt Karen made them sit down. They also complain whenever we are at Mom & Dad's house and Dad insists on doing it his own self and since their kitchen is so small he can physically block the sink while he loads the dishwasher and they have to give up.) I passed out the presents and we had fun watching her play with the packages. Everything was light enough for her to pick up, except for the giant bear from Rich and his family, but that wasn't wrapped so she could pull on the ribbon on it's neck and knock it over, trapping herself until someone took pity on her and righted the bear so she could start the process over again.

When everyone left, I took a bath while Walker attempted to read his favorite Christmas story "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". Moira was so exhausted from the excitement after a week and a half of barely leaving the house that she passed out after three pages. Even more impressive, she almost stayed asleep when he brought her in to bed. She would have probably stayed asleep if I had waited to actually get comfortable, but she fell right back to sleep once we got situated.

Christmas morning we woke up and opened presents from Walker's family. At least those that are not stuck in a Fed Ex truck by the side of the road on Juanita. (Seriously, we drove by it yesterday night. I'm sure that's where the package is since I saw another Fed Ex truck drive by on Friday, but the tracking information says unable to deliver due to weather for the last five business days. The power went out around 10:30 am, and stayed out until we left the house at 2:30. It came back on while we were gone, but another branch gave out and so it was out again by the time we came home from Carol's. Today it seems to be back permanently so laundry is chugging away so Moira can wear all her cute new clothes.

After all the excitement on Christmas Eve she did not want to nap Christmas Day. She fell asleep in the car on the way to Carol & Glen's house, and then was cranky and clingy for awhile after we got there. Eventually she realized that she had an adoring audience and decided to show off her crawling abilities. Max was particularly good at getting her to move forward. She also enjoyed trying to get their sweet dog Narla, who was very smart and tried her best to stay out of baby's arm reach.

Nana gave her a beautiful bee riding toy. Of course, Moira only played with the tag, and the antenna, but when she can stand it will be great fun. I am very glad to see that Nana is doing so much better. I was sad that the snow made it so we couldn't go see her before Christmas, so we will just have to visit sometime soon in the New Year And maybe bring some pictures.

As soon as I finish handing out presents I intend to make a post of everything I made for Christmas presents.

Not only does the universe not want me to see [info]mspurplepearl it doesn't want me to play Little Big Planet. On Tuesday, the bulb in our TV blew and today our power went out, so even if the bulb was going to be delivered today (which of course it isn't), it would be useless. I did get two copies of it for Christmas though, so I can play EXTRA hard when power and picture returns. Or something.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Moira has been increasingly sick as the snow wears on and we mostly stay in the house. First I thought it was just that she's sick, but she has been more cranky as she gets better, not less. So today I finally put the effort into getting us bundled up so we could go for a walk through the woods. It was a big hit. She spent most of the walk with her head tipped back as far as possible so she could see everything. Now we are home and she is happily playing with her toys for longer then 2 minutes. Yay!

Walker is sick, so he worked from home yesterday, which meant I could let the baby play in the living room under his watchful eye while I cleaned up my sewing room. Yay! Best advent activity ever! It is such a small room and there were already things all over the floor and then with all the Christmas presents I made it got worse so there was only about 10" of clear floor space. I even moved things around so the big chest full of fabric is in the closet and the little chest with all my tools is more easily accessible. There's still not room for the 2 40 gallon bins of fabric that are in the storage room, but that won't happen until we can build out the closet.

In response to the question I keep getting, this is how much snow we have. That is 7" on the benches. I imagine there's a couple of extra inches on the grass, but I didn't want to wade in there. I think the street in front of the house is probably close to the 7", plus there are some tire tracks where the people with SUVs and Walker have been driving to work.
In response to Sarah's request, here is a picture of Moira in one of her Christmas jammies. They just barely fit, but she doesn't mind the 3/4 sleeve look.

1. started your own blog2. slept under the stars3. played in a band4. visited hawaii5. watched a meteor shower6. given more than you can afford to charity7. been to disneyland/world
8. climbed a mountain9. held a praying mantis10. sang a solo
11. bungee jumped12. visited paris
13. watched a lightning storm at sea14. taught yourself an art from scratch15. adopted a child16. had food poisoning
17. walked to the top of the statue of liberty18. grown your own vegetables19. seen the mona lisa in france20. slept on an overnight train (Well, sort of. I've never slept well in places that are not my bed. My poor mother.)21. had a pillow fight
22. hitch hiked23. taken a sick day when you’re not ill24. built a snow fort
25. held a lamb
26. gone skinny dipping
27. run a marathon28. ridden a gondola in venice29. seen a total eclipse30. watched a sunrise or sunset
31. hit a home run32. been on a cruise
33. seen niagara falls in person34. visited the birthplace of your ancestors35. seen an amish community36. taught yourself a new language37. had enough money to be truly satisfied38. seen the leaning tower of pisa in person
39. gone rock climbing40. seen michelangelo's david in person41. sung karaoke
42. seen old faithful geyser erupt43. bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. visited africa45. walked on a beach by moonlight46. been transported in an ambulance47. had your portrait painted
48. gone deep sea fishing49. seen the sistene chapel in person50. been to the top of the eiffel tower in paris
51. gone scuba diving or snorkeling52. kissed in the rain53. played in the mud54. gone to a drive-in theatre55. been in a movie56. visited the great wall of china57. started a business58. taken a martial arts class59. visited russia60. served at a soup kitchen
61. sold girl scout cookies.62. gone whale watching (You could watch the Orcas play with the ferry boats from my parent's house in Port Orchard.)63. gotten flowers for no reason64. donated blood
65. gone sky diving
66. visited a nazi concentration camp67. bounced a cheque
68. flown in a helicopter69. saved a favorite childhood toy70. visited the lincoln memorial
71. eaten caviar72. pieced a quilt
73. stood in Times Square74. toured the everglades
75. been fired from a job76. seen the changing of the guard in london
77. broken a bone78. been on a speeding motorcycle79. seen the grand canyon in person80. published a book (This is a technicality due to Christmas presents this year.)81. visited the vatican82. bought a brand new car
83. walked in jerusalem
84. had your picture in the newspaper
85. read the entire bible86. visited the white house
87. killed and prepared an animal for eating88. had chickenpox
89. saved someone’s life90. sat on a jury
91. met someone famous
92. joined a book club
93. lost a loved one
94. had a baby
95. seen the alamo in person96. swum in the great salt lake.
97. been involved in a law suit98. owned a cell phone
99. been stung by a bee

Sunday, December 21, 2008

I'm well adjusted to being trapped in the house (Trapped I say! Like mice!) but I'm starting to run out of Advent things I can do with supplies on hand. Also, who knows when I'll be able to get Moira to the doctors for her second flu shot, what with Walker being on call starting Tuesday through the 6th of January and needing my car to get to work until it stops snowing (Dear Porsche, please include the gizmo Walker wants in the Turbo he wants ASAP, kthanxbye), and I think I have to scrap visiting Nana before Christmas completely. I'll have to call her instead.
Here is a list of minor Christmasy things we have done in the last week:
Read Christmas books (Father Christmas, A Wish For Wings That Work)
Listened to Christmas music
Put wrapped presents under tree
Picked up Santa photos
Finished getting things ready to mail out (hopefully Walker can do that tomorrow and things can get next dayed)
Finished last minute Christmas presents
Drank eggnog (Tonight, eggnog with Rum! Yum)

I'm not sure what Moira and I will do for our last two unplanned days of Advent. Any suggestions?

We have also been hosting my friend Rane, her husband Ray, their son Jack, their dog and cat while they finish the move that never ends. Rane and Jack flew to Florida today and Ray is finishing cleaning up the house before he drives across the country and the worst of the snowstorms. Good luck to him. Jack and Moira both have colds, but watching another baby play with toys was interesting enough to keep them from being too cranky. Jack is a year old, so he is at the stage where he wants whatever you are playing with, which Moira still thinks is a good game, so it worked out okay. Except when Jack would decide to crawl over her to get somewhere and smush her little head into the carpet.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

There is a lot of snow here now, and I here the storm this weekend will be worse! Although possibly rain or ice instead of snow! What fun! I am trying to prepare for the power to go out, since I hear from the neighbors that happens all the time.
Yes, just one this time, although I have two varieties.

15. English Holly
Already knew: Holly was thought to perfectly represent Christ in medieval England. The song The Holly and the Ivy is all about that. The red berries represent his blood, the prickles the crown of thorns and the white flowers represent the purity of his mother. Holly plants comes in bush and tree forms. This one is a tree in our backdoor neighbor's yard and it is taller then our house. It is so big that my Mother in law didn't recognize it as a Holly. The berries are poisonous to humans.
Recently learned: The berries are ripe in fall, but don't become tasty to birds until winter when they have time to soften and sweeten. Pre-Christian Romans considered the Holly the plant of Saturn. It is the most sacred tree to Druids.

16. Variegated Holly
Already knew: This is a recent cultivar of the Holly tree.
Recently learned: See above.

Since we are snowed in again, I decided to make paper snowflakes for the front window today. Then I laughed at myself for making fake snow while there is real snow outside.
On the other hand, I was really smart to go to the grocery store last night, even if the price of bread has shot up ridiculously high and I didn't notice until Walker pointed it out on the way home.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The last two days have been stuck at home. The roads are drivable with the only problem being the turn into and out of the main street from my place, but Walker has been taking my car to work since the S2000? Not so good at winter driving.
Anyway, yesterday I printed out and addressed the Christmas letter. Most of them went into the mail today with a few waiting for us to be able to get to Seattle and pick up the Santa photos from the Zoo. Today I wrapped presents.
Tomorrow I am watching my friend's 1 year old son while their house gets packed up, so I predict that nothing adventy happens, although I may bundle everyone up and go for a long walk through the woods if nap time fails. A walk through the snowy woods is very Christmasy.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Yesterday we didn't do much, although Walker managed to get the music player to work properly, by the simple method of threatening to fix it so we listened to Christmas music and looked at the weather forecast. This is the first time in my life I have ever begged the weather not to snow. and I have been trying to get together for three weeks now and plans keep getting canceled. I have her wire. She has my spoons. We have presents to exchange, not to mention that she really wants to see Moira crawl. Apparently the universe wants me to eat ice cream with her wire. It's the only explanation I can come up with.
Anyway, what this means is that today's plans for advent was a gift swap party at pearl's house that I was going to attend sans Moira. Instead, it snowed last night and the hills iced over today and I had to stay home. Walker and I decorated the mantle on our fireplace instead, and to show the universe that I am not happy with it, I put the stockings on the hooks after they had been attached to the mantle for only 10 minutes instead of the hour the instructions called for. And they are still there. Take that universe!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Today Moira and I put up the Christmas tree. She was actually a big help, entertaining herself with the big box of toys and books I put on the floor next to her, and then staring in amazement at the pretty lights for up to 10 minutes at a time. After I had decorated it, and she had a nap, I put her in front of the tree and she would stare at it and then look at me like "Am I really seeing this?!" Best of all, she hasn't figured out that she can crawl towards it yet.
During her afternoon nap, the power went out. That was fine, since we have a gas stove and fireplaces but when she woke up she freaked out. Best I can figure, she was just not happy with the lights being off when it was not time to be asleep. Since I don't have enough candles to mimic lightbulb lighting, I asked my next door neighbor to show me how to manually open the garage door so I could get the car out and Moira and I went to Goodwill.

Moira has started giggling. I'm not sure if it's an actual happy sound, or just a fun noise to make, but it's terrifically cute. She has also figured out how to swallow on purpose which is a good sign for future food consumption but for now mostly means that she is shoving fur in her mouth and trying to chew and swallow it. Eeew.

She is also getting better at settling down. I have discovered that if I sing Barges she stills and smiles and if she's only just a little awake, she will go right back to sleep. It even works in the car when she's screaming. I'm glad I picked that song to sing when she was brand new over Sing me a Rainbow which is not only sappy as heck but harder to sing which would be a problem when she wakes up in the middle of the night.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Today's advent activity was visiting with my Mom's Mom (Grandma). Karen was nice enough to bring Grandma over for lunch today, and bring lunch.
Moira has been getting progressively grouchier as she tries to short change her naps for the last few days. By the time Karen and Grandma left, she was whining every time I put her down, when she dropped her toy, and sometimes just because. Fortunately she had a nice long nap (4 hours! Sweet!) this afternoon. Even though Bobbe was here painting, Stewie was barking and the horses across the street were freaking out. I hope that isn't a sign of bad weather coming or something.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Today, Moira and I made an ornament to commemorate her first Christmas. I was originally going to make a painted one, but her hand was is not only too big for the premade ornament I bought a few weeks ago, but I realized that would be incredibly messy. Instead I stole the idea had of using fabric pens and fabric. I have to say, given how hard it was to keep her hand still and keep her from grabbing the pen, I'm REALLY glad I did it this way. The back is made with leftover star print from Moira's stocking.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Today was a rough day for me, mostly due to Moira having fun with her vocal chords and introducing a whine to her happy sounds and upset sounds. That and she was so tired, but had a hard time staying asleep led to a lot of crying and snuggling and crying while snuggling. So today's advent activity is Walker taking the baby out of the house and giving me at least 2 hours on my own! Sweet sweet silence! Now to go zone out and rehydrate until they come home.

Sunday was Rebecca & Andrew's engagement party, so we went. We were early enough that there weren't a lot of people there yet, so Moira got to play on the floor with the kittie toys (boxes! bags! catnip! The catnip was apparently her favorite because she carefully rubbed it on her cheeks for a few minutes.)
When the cats noticed the baby, they were totally confused. Merlin (the black one) decided she wasn't to be trusted and kept a close watch on her, from a wise distance. Morgan (the calico) however, decided she was a human and kept trying to convince Moira to pet her belly.
The rest of the photos, and many more photos of the adorable kittens are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/murpalicious/Kittens#

Monday, December 8, 2008

This is the package I have collected for the 14 year old girl whose name I picked off the giving tree at the Lake Forest Park Mall, after much fretting about the idea of gift cards. I have been assured by and that teenagers love gift cards, and that has certainly played out with the teenagers I've known. The only problem with it for me really, is that I have NEVER been the kind of person who liked getting gift cards, even when I was 14. So every time I think about it my brain is going "Hey! That's not right!"
Anyway. I decided that a gift card was the best idea because everyone kept saying it was, but I also figure that since I am replacing Santa in this case (even though she surely doesn't still believe in him), there had to be something real in addition to the gift card.
So there is: lavender body wash, body mist and bath fizz tabs, a nice leather journal, a five pack of argyle print pens and gift card to Target. I sincerely hope she likes it.

Yesterday we wrote our Christmas letter. And by 'we' I mean, I wrote 5 sentences about what happened this year, and then Walker went back and added funny bits.
I am in a bad mood today, and I'm not sure what to do about it. Continuing with the endless series of errands seems unlikely to help, but I should probably do it anyway.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

We skipped day 5. I was planning to go visit at the holiday bazaar she was selling her jewelry at, but instead we helped Alex & Jen get home after their car stopped working and Stewie to the vet.
Today we went to the Woodland Park Zoo for their Santa breakfast. It was a good event. It was nicely organized, with assigned tables for each group, and our table was right by the empty space where the entertainment was. The food was better then the regular food at the zoo which I guess means that it's not a horrible idea to have your wedding there (one of the options I was looking at for our wedding, and I thought at the time "Are you kidding me? The food at the zoo sucks!")

Moira didn't care so much for any of the entertainment, or Santa, but she's getting old enough that if Walker and I get excited about something, she will mimic us, so we faked excitement for Santa.
I think we may do this every year. It was a good way to see Santa, there's a limited number of people standing in line with you for photos, the music they played was soothing, ignorable Christmas music, rather then the kind of Christmas musak in malls. Plus afterwards, you get to go to the zoo instead of Nordstrom's.

I've never been to the zoo this early, so it was cool to see all the animals sleeping. Especially the cuddling Gorillas. Unfortunately, Moira was exhausted and refused to fall asleep in the stroller instead screaming until I picked her up. So after visiting the refurbished carousel (yay!) and donating money to the new penguin habitat we went to the car where she fell asleep almost immediately.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Last night we went to Bellevue for their Snowflake Lane. Fake snow falling from the rooftops! Whee! We decided that it was a better way to experience snow with Moira this year then driving up the mountains. Moira was unimpressed, but it was cute. What was disappointing was that the cupcake place in the mall was closed, but we did bump into my cousin Wynne who was shopping for her Mom's birthday.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

My landscape could use more color right now. There are a lot of brown leaves all over the ground, and on top of the coniferous trees, and stuck in Stewie's fur, so this week I'm going back in time to when there were still flowers in bloom.

13. Clematis
Already knew: Clematis is a climbing vine with purple five petaled flowers. It does much better in places that have a warmer summer. I remember being shocked at how big and healthy the Clematis at Steel's parent's house in Virginia was.
Recently learned: The Clematis is a Liana, which what they call woody vines. Caterpillars love to eat the leaves. The compounds in Clematis cause internal bleeding of the digestive tract if ingested. Despite it's toxicity, Native Americans (which ones Wikipedia? Be specific!) used small amounts to treat migraines and nervous disorders.

14. Dahlias
Already knew: (side note, these look really pink in this picture but they were more lavender in reality.)Dahlias are a flower. That and what they look like is all I really know about them.
Recently learned: In 1872 a box of Dahlia roots were sent from Mexico to the Netherlands. Only one plant survived the trip, but they still became a popular flower in Europe with thousands of cultivars. In Germany Dahlias were known as Georgines until recently. Dahlias are often grown for judged shows. Just like purebred dogs.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Moira is exceptionally good at the army crawl now (elbowing herself forward). As I type, she's noticed my shoes in the kitchen and is heading towards them.
I stand corrected. When I got her out of the kitchen, she was instead, trying to chew on the cable hanging out of the wall by the fridge.
Her favorite thing to do right now is crawl towards Stewie. He will be happily sleeping on one side of the living room and she will crawl quietly up towards him (she's usually quiet while moving, but she's especially quiet when trying to sneak up on him) and just when she can reach out and touch him, he notices her, yelps and runs to the other side of the room. She likes to crawl towards him when he's not sleeping too, but he moves more quickly that way, so she usually gets distracted by something else. Like the end table leg, which is so tasty for her to chew on.
This week, Bobbe is building us a wall and putting up some extra bits of wood so we can make a baby gate work on the stairs. Hopefully Moira won't notice the stairs until after it's done/

Today, Moira and I decorated the front porch area. I bought some of those jelly window cling things purely because they were penguins, and we got the temporary hook things so that w didn't have to put a nail in the front door. I really don't like how the orange door looks with a red wreath on it, but whatever. We'll replace the door eventually.
This is the most our front porch is going to get decorated this year because Walker has discovered there are no outlets on the front of our house. Way to plan people! We found this out when we were trying to figure out how my family was going to find our walkway on Thanksgiving. We also discovered that the lightbulbs in our outside lights were something like 8 watts. No wonder they were useless. That has been fixed now.

For a future advent day, we also picked up a tag from the holiday wishing tree at the Lake Forest Park mall. My original intention was to get the card of a child Moira's age, but most of the cards on the tree were for teenagers and I felt bad for the poor teenagers knowing that most people were probably picking the younger kids. Now I have to figure out what to get for a 14 year old girl. The list of suggestions for this age range is unhelpful; clothes, Nintendo games, Play station games, Sports clothing. There are other things suggested too, but seriously? You've given me a name, gender and age. How do I know what size they are or what game system they might have. I will be including some lotion and bath stuff with the package, and maybe a pretty necklace, but that's assuming she's a girly girl.
So maybe this is why there were a lot of teenagers on the tree. In future years, we will stick with the child Moira's age and let her help pick out the toy, but she's really not going to be much help with this.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Today I made stockings for Walker & Moira. I'm actually a little surprised that I got them both finished because the old sweater I used for Walker's tried to kill my serger and Moira was fusstastic today.
Like, here's how the day went:
Moira is hungry; screams. Moira is done eating; screams. Moira wants to play with toys; screams. Moira drops the toy she's playing with; screams like she's on fire. Moira is tired; screams. Moira realizes she's falling asleep; screams some more. Repeat as necessary.

Monday, December 1, 2008

As today is the first day of December, I pulled out the Advent calendar Mom made when I was little. I didn't actually make little cards to attach to the rings for each of the activities we will be doing, or in fact, decide what to do on each day. I have a list though, and I will see if I can do one Christmasy thing per day and leave things open for different things then what I originally planned. If this goes well, next year I will make little cards for Moira pull off and have it all more planned out. Yay.

First up was fixing the wreath I bought for cheap at Joann's a few years ago. It is so cheap that the little red berries like to ping off every time you close the door, no matter how gently you do so. Well, we close our new door much less often here, what with the usable garage so I figured it could have a few years of use. Unfortunately, it was starting too look a little sparse, so I got some silver berry sprigs from Michael's and attached them with floral wire. Now to buy a hanger for the door. And yes, hanging the wreath is a separate activity on my advent list.